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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22969963">creating fortune</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/maevestrom/pseuds/maevestrom'>maevestrom</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Flower Fortunes, Flowers, Language of Flowers, Long-Distance Relationship, Meadow, Past Love, Post-Wedding, Promises, Sunsets, sapphic relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:21:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,333</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22969963</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/maevestrom/pseuds/maevestrom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On one of their nights together, Sumia and Olivia go on a walk to somewhere Olivia never expected to see, and things start to make more sense and help her feel more alive.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Olivia/Sumia (Fire Emblem)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>creating fortune</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/21816478">building up to the quiet</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/maevestrom/pseuds/maevestrom">maevestrom</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Sometimes I feel like I literally could just write in this canon forever and make sure my babies are as happy as possible as they struggle to break away from this heartache.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>This feels oddly domestic. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia’s away in her room, as she said she would be after dinner. Olivia insisted that she’d take care of the dishes because, as per usual, Sumia cooked dinner. A fantastic dinner, as usual, the kind of dinner that tastes like she enjoyed making it, that she wanted to. Olivia isn’t sure what it is like to look forward to doing such domestic things. She certainly isn’t having a baller time doing all the dishes, but… Sumia made dinner. She deserves to rest a little. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia isn’t great at doing dishes, but she’s definitely gotten better. Back home in Ferox, she is a little too reliant on delivery for her own good. Healthy delivery- thanks to her wealth as a celebrity dancer, she can generally afford good food- but certainly not the type that has a lot of dishes to do as much as a lot of garbage to deal with. At this point, she’s confident that she knows where everything goes. She’s been here enough times that she can remember where Sumia keeps the silverware, the pots and pans, even the colander and salad tongs. That in itself should scare Olivia, but it doesn’t really, even with the implications. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s probably the tenth time Olivia has visited Sumia in her Ylissean home. The first two or three times were probably a month or so apart each, then something hit her in the gut and she started to visit more often. She isn’t sure exactly what it was. Well, okay, maybe she is. Maybe not sure. It still feels weird not to call what’s between them a </span>
  <em>
    <span>thing, </span>
  </em>
  <span>like a fling, an escape, a little fun. It’s very much not that anymore, and it hasn’t been the more they’ve talked. The deeper their conversations got, the deeper their relationship got, and while Olivia was definitely a little spooked when Sumia introduced her as “my girlfriend Liv” to a cattle rancher that she’s pretty sure was at Robin’s wedding, she’s less spooked now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Olivia takes a good bit to scrub the pan that the salmon was roasted in, she thinks maybe initially it was because if the cattle rancher was a friend of Robin’s there’s a world where she knows about Olivia, knows that Olivia’s scared of really any form of commitment deep down in her heart, and wouldn’t expect this to last. Or maybe it was because she was worried she’d be recognized as </span>
  <em>
    <span>Olivia de la Cruz</span>
  </em>
  <span>, famous Feroxi dancer, and that’s kind of what she didn’t want, but thankfully no one really pays attention to that stuff in Sumia’s home town, and thank Naga for that. (Seriously, she wouldn't mind if they had a </span>
  <em>
    <span>Footloose</span>
  </em>
  <span> style no-dancing law.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or maybe it’s because, despite the conversation they had where Olivia admitted that she nearly left Sumia before things escalated- because she was scared, because she’s not used to not doing anything for herself, not used to not being depressed, not used to valuing and being valued- turning into a conversation where Olivia- </span>
  <em>
    <span>Olivia!</span>
  </em>
  <span>- was the one to suggest that they start dating, Olivia’s still worried-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>...well, she’s worried that she’s gonna tear the sponge in half from all the worrying she does. It’s the type of worrying that she still isn’t used to, even ten visits in, with the last seven happening two weeks, then single weeks apart and taking up to three days. It's worrying that still eats at her even at around five months in. Worrying isn’t the feeling nothing that she’s used to and it’s like a rollercoaster and sometimes it gets so bad that she wants to hide in her blankets and go back to living a shell of a life just to escape the roar, but if she did that, she wouldn’t have Sumia, and Sumia is worth that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So the least Olivia could do is finish the dishes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a working woman manner, Olivia gets through the leftover silverware, washing them and running them through a hand towel because if they stay in the dish dryer, Sumia will “take care of it” later after they dry and, </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell no babe, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Olivia’s doing the dishes so that Sumia doesn’t do anything. Sumia’s day is over. Hell, Olivia knows what Sumia goes through on her homestead to keep the plants growing, keep Belfire happy, keep working away at her estate, even when Olivia isn’t there. If she’s asleep, she deserves it. Olivia will just slip into bed with her and cuddle in her big, burly arms, rest against her cute and chubby little stomach, happily little-spooning her head straight into the spot on Sumia’s neck where she can bend her face down to sleepily kiss the top of it…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia realizes that she’s been lost in thought enough for one actual spoon to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>significantly </span>
  </em>
  <span>drier than the rest. She grumbles as she lets it go- only for it to fall straight back into the dishwater stopping the sink. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck my life,” she mumbles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, she gets it done so quickly it’s as if dishes never mattered. It’s as if the little things never blew up into big things that became impossible things that led to her doing nothing but training, sleeping, and canceling plans with Azura to the tune of Azura understanding and pitying her way too much. When she finishes, she walks past the vase where Sumia keeps putting in variations of the bouquet she was tossed during Robin’s wedding by her best friend and long unrequited love Cordelia. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s gotten to a point where Olivia doesn’t think of Cordelia with a twinge of jealousy. She’s known from the start that expecting Sumia to get over her feelings for her dearest lifelong friend is not something that happens overnight and that Sumia is trying, and her fears are quieted by the fact that Sumia frequently uses the exact same flowers from the bouquets the brides threw. Olivia caught Robin’s. (Well, not caught as in she tried; it was more like Robin intentionally shot Olivia in the heart with petals.) The bouquets were a promise between Olivia and Sumia, though not said to be as much. It was their way of saying that they’d try.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia is amazed that the trying worked out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she finishes, she walks through the living room with the couch that is not that comfortable to sleep on like Sumia’s bed was, past the door to the guest room that Olivia has not done more than throw her bags into for the past five visits, and to the door of Sumia’s own room, adorned with a new sunflower wreath and some Live-Laugh-Love proverb that says </span>
  <em>
    <span>Nothing that ever comes to one that is worth having except as a result of hard work. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia knocks softly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come in!” Sumia sounds very much awake and cheerful enough that Olivia feels even more exhausted than before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re decent, right?” Olivia feels the need to ask, as though she has ever once cared deep down about the modesty of her female partners before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luckily, Sumia’s giggle also seems to know that it’s kind of a crap proposition. “I mean, it doesn’t really </span>
  <em>
    <span>super </span>
  </em>
  <span>matter to me, but yeah, I’m clothed.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool cool.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Of course she wouldn’t care either way, Olivia. She’s your girlfriend. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And you two have sexted for a couple of weeks now. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia slowly turns the knob, emphasizing her presence as she enters so as not to surprise Sumia. As she enters, she sees Sumia sitting on the edge of her bed in the same orange-and-white striped shirt as before, though with a new set of overalls. Olivia isn’t really sure what Sumia’s doing, but she definitely can relate to trying to regain her energy by slightly redressing, so she cuts Sumia slack for only barely changing and sits next to her. Then, she collapses back, head resting on a throw blanket. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sup?” Olivia asks from behind her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia turns onto her side and lies next to Olivia, though she has a little more energy than the dancer. Sumia’s just like that, though. She makes Olivia feel mute, though Olivia already feels mute as it is in comparison to many things. “I was thinking of some things,” she admits. “Walk-related things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Su, do you ever stop?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia giggles, shameless as ever. “I feel like I should, but…” she shrugs. “A walk never hurt a girl.” Then her eyes widen. “Course, I’m totally cool with waiting for you. You had to deal with that entire kitchen!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia smirks. “Yeah, I know, and it was so you didn’t have to deal with it and could </span>
  <em>
    <span>relax </span>
  </em>
  <span>if you wanted to.” She yawns and smacks her lips dramatically. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I relaxed!” Sumia insists with a playful pout. Turns out she can really work the drama when Olivia does. “I just had less tank to fill up than I thought.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And hopefully you still will,” Olivia adds, resting her head on her hand. “Because I washed and dried everything and put it away where it went. And before you ask, yes, in the right locations, because if you try and redo any of it I’ll chain you to your own bed.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia giggles like a misbehaving teenager, face red. “I’m pretty sure we both could use a little time before </span>
  <em>
    <span>that!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Then she’s so lost in giggles that if Olivia didn’t feel like she’d see a jackass in the mirror, she’d probably join in because she loves Sumia's giggle. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As it stands, she just blushes and takes on the pout that Sumia once had. “You’re such a kid sometimes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia beams like she was complimented. Still giggling a little: “Hey, I’ll make any joke thrown at me no matter what. So, like...” Sumia takes Olivia’s hands. “Don’t give me the tools if you don’t want me to raise a barn, you know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia feels whatever retort she had flee her mind in record time. Did she even have one? It’s kind of embarrassing how easily this </span>
  <em>
    <span>works </span>
  </em>
  <span>on her, just Sumia holding her hands gently, rubbing circles into each knuckle, smiling at her like she still can’t believe it. And Olivia kind of can’t believe it either. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were talking about a walk?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia nods with the innocence of someone who doesn’t know how easy it would be to weaponize Olivia’s acquiescence. “Just a bit through the homestead here. Not too far. It’s just a nice night out, you know? The sun’s just starting to set, and it’s still kind of warm out- though you could probably still use your coat.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia pulls at her bodysuit tank top, black as the matching shorts. “You have a point,” she says. “It’s a lot warmer here than Ferox, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“From how you make it sound, walk-in freezers are.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia snorts. “True. That’s because they are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia scratches the back of her neck. “Consider yourself lucky. The last time it dipped below freezing here, I was in my twenties.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia snorts louder, a smile hidden beneath her hand. Still, it’s in her eyes enough for Sumia to smile back, the kind that’s at once peaceful and eager, the kind that says </span>
  <em>
    <span>go on an adventure with me, Olivia, </span>
  </em>
  <span>the kind that makes Olivia want to follow her anywhere. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what do you say?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia thinks thoughts that don’t make it to her mouth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give me about five minutes, then I’m good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia beams. Olivia’s confident that she made the right choice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia’s never once told Sumia this and doesn’t really have any immediate plans to, but when they traverse around the homestead she plays close attention to what she can. Sumia never likes to make visitors work, even if Olivia is her girlfriend and Sumia will state it proudly to anyone who asks. She should at least do something. She’s not good at that many things other than dancing, lucking into celebrity, and repetitious learning, but she’s willing to try. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia throws a very unmatching light blue cardigan on over her shirt and overalls. Olivia dons a black trenchcoat that she packed and she probably shouldn’t have because they’re currently wading through knee-high grass that keeps catching it, but she doesn’t mind all that much. She can see the shed where Sumia keeps a lot of her gardening supplies. “I should definitely be able to afford more seeds if I, like…” She counts on her fingers as absently as she talks. “Sell the power saw and downgrade to another. Money always gets a little tight right when it comes to planting season so the frivolities generally take a backseat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia nods like her jacket didn’t cost her a couple of hundred dollars, doesn’t contain a credit card with upwards of four digits on it that she should really take better care of than she is, and like she isn’t taking notes. Sumia never tries to borrow money from Olivia- or “pester” her, as the farmgirl puts it- and when they were early on in their thing and not officially dating, Olivia was cool with that. Still, at this point, Sumia would be well within her rights to ask Olivia for financial help because, hello, the jacket alone could buy a ton of new seed if she sold it. Hell, she knows how the internet works, the fact that she wore it would probably get her an investment from creeps. She can usually afford to keep her pride, but if Sumia really needed money, she’s not too proud for that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Luckily I’ve got a ton of seeds from last year’s harvest,” she continues. “Some of ‘em got a little damaged during the rainy season. Mold hit ‘em. I had to patch up my shed recently because, really, it was getting to be a little much. That’s why I’m buying new seed, to make up for the ones I lost.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia nods. “I noticed that the shed looked a lot nicer this visit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia giggles. “Yeah, I did it recently!” Pulling her cardigan down authoritatively, she says “There’s nothing worth having that you don’t gotta work hard for, you know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I read it on your door,” Olivia points out. “Except it was longer there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia </span>
  <em>
    <span>oop</span>
  </em>
  <span>s. “Oh yeah.” With a blush: “I might love that quote.” Then she breaks into that little giggle fit like she always does. They are without question the most adorable thing that Olivia can think of and she smiles ever so shyly like she just started to fall for someone for the first time. She thought Sumia’s smile did it for her but the giggle, that fucking giggle, that could melt her on the spot if ever she was not careful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, Olivia focuses on following Sumia as the grass gets so high that she stops trying to pull her legs above it and instead just lifts up her coat, letting the grass scratch unsuccessfully at her calves and thighs. It’s an easier walk, though she wants to ask Sumia what exactly she is thinking walking through what is probably the wildest part of her entire homestead. She’d better know what she’s doing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they walk a little more, a small clearing appears in Olivia’s sight. If she looks closely- and by closely, she means “around Sumia’s six-foot-tall body”- she can see a patch of daisies in front of it, shimmering in the pink and orange light of the sunset. In fact, that’s not all. As they get closer, other flowers appear- dahlias, lavender, peonies, and violets among them- and Olivia recognizes many as the types that Sumia used for the bouquets. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia gasps. She can’t help it. She can’t help her legs getting weak on her for the first time in gods-know-how-long and she can’t help how she feels. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry I never took you over here before!” Sumia explains, none the wiser to Olivia’s little freakout. “I knew it was gonna be a big hike but…” She doesn’t continue immediately and her steps ease. “It was on my mind. Because I knew you’d like it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do.” Olivia isn’t always like this. She tries not to be, anyway. She hates being this vulnerable. This… exposed. Yet it’s happened lately and it’s all been because of Sumia. This is different, though. Other times, Olivia has decided with great anxiety to allow herself to be more open. This time, she doesn't really have a choice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s glad that they make it to the clearing so she can fall to her knees in the middle of the patch of daisies, not really taking care to avoid squishing any but feeling grass indent itself into the skin on her knees as her trenchcoat consumes her like a child lost in a mysterious wonderland. She’s never really seen a wild garden like this. A few in the cities that are maintained and grown by people, but Ferox has never been hospitable for a lot of plant life. Not like Ylisse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s not it, though. It’s a place that means something to Sumia and Olivia. It’s the type of place that is hard to think about because it reminds them of people and places that hurts them to regard as much as it heals them. About Cordelia, about Robin, about fear of commitment, about tears neither one should have let fall, about how Olivia will soon have to go back home again like she did the last few times and even if she spent six days here and one day in Ferox, she feels like she’d be gone for far too long. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia knows something is bigger than them both, to her credit. She smiles and holds Olivia’s hand. That’s not enough, and Olivia hugs her to her side, trying to control her breathing as it hastens while something that feels like a sob but isn’t quite sad hits her in the chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So this is it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia nods sweetly. “Yeah. It’s really helpful for when things like the wedding happen, I guess.” She looks down. It’s a sore subject. “A-and I already wanted to make everything perfect for that day so, like…” She sighs. “It was fine, though, cause it was their special day. I didn’t expect to get anything out of it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You deserved to,” Olivia responds. In her head, she’s more forgiving of what Sumia might say. It’s clear words never come easy about the wedding and it’s just an established fact that Sumia’s going to have conflicting feelings about Olivia and long lost Cordelia for awhile- though Sumia has never shown signs of the conflict leaning to an end that wasn’t Olivia for months now. Still, it was a farewell to old, dead pieces of her heart- and a greeting to new ones.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In an abstract way, that’s what it was to Olivia too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m always gonna remember them,” Olivia whispers. “Especially the orange dahlia I took with me. I still have some petals; I couldn’t keep the whole thing, but… I wanted to keep the petals. So I couldn’t, like… escape what it meant to me. So that I knew it was okay to want it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You seemed so scared,” Sumia points out. “I mean, I kinda was too, but that was just…” She shrugs. “I took it bad. I thought it was a consolation prize because…” She blushes. “You know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Olivia confirms softly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be,” Olivia insists. “I know where we’re at. It’s okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia doesn’t respond more than an awkward giggle. Okay as it is, it still isn’t fun. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought it was kind of one too,” Olivia admits. “For me. Like, because I swear Robin just- I can’t forget it. It was like they were trying to knock my head off with the flowers.” She exaggeratedly pulls her free arm back. “It’s like they turned baseball pitcher for a moment!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia giggles and hums the charge fanfare before giggling even harder after the final note. Olivia joins in, all but collapsing on her. It feels nice, even as she remembers that she still has to talk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Better get that over with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, like… I guess I was thinking ‘oh my gods, does she see how boring and sad my dating life is?’” She thinks then corrects herself. “My </span>
  <em>
    <span>life </span>
  </em>
  <span>life? I think now I can see that, yeah, Robin has…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighs. She’s come to the conclusion that she’ll never be able to love Robin without a little bit of romance, the kind of love long lost and accepted as such. They were too important to each other at a vulnerable part of their lives for Olivia to lie about such. “Robin’s had a way of reading me better than anyone, but they’ve never judged me. They probably just wanted me to be happy. And maybe… I wanted to take that chance for me, deep down. I just… was scared.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia hugs Olivia to the side much like Olivia’s hugging her. The two quietly cuddle before the depth of the flowers before them, backs to the house a speck behind them. Sumia gingerly traces circles into Olivia’s taut shoulder until Olivia lets herself slack, her grip on Sumia’s waist becoming looser but never disappearing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m really glad you took that chance on me,” Sumia confesses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course,” Olivia whispers. “If I were as good as I wanted to be, I’d have let myself accept it from the moment I saw you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia tightens a second but resists the urge to argue. Good. She’s learning. “I, uh… me too. I think I’d have accepted it a long time ago. I’m…” She smiles. “I’m glad you asked me to go steady. I don’t think I’ve ever actually said, you know, a dead-on thank you, but…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t have to,” Olivia insists. “I wanted it. I wanted you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was just so big of you,” Sumia insists. “Y-ya know? Like, you keep saying things like, that it’s hard for you, and I believe that, but you do these things so often, for me, and…” Sumia’s sniffling. Before Olivia can react, already tensing up, Sumia says “It’s good sniffly! I promise! I just… it really makes me so proud and s-so… so honored. That you’d do these for me. And…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia squeezes harder on Sumia’s waist. Sumia is stumbling upon Olivia’s secret. It isn’t much of a secret, but with Sumia… Olivia doesn’t have many secrets. She just needs one. She just needs to be in love in a place where she is safe. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So all she says is “Of course, Su. You’re so worth it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia kisses the top of Olivia’s head, and her lips linger when she stops. Olivia starts to drift away, as if they’re in bed and not in nature under the setting sun, in the most serene place, in the most serene state that she’s ever been. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia maintains that sort of peace when she whispers. “These daisies are… well, they’re lucky I don’t really do as much anymore, but when I was a kid I used to be the daisy’s worst enemy because, like…” She thinks. “You ever do flower fortunes when you were a kid?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia shakes her head. She hasn’t even heard of them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, well, it’s kind of, like… way simple,” she explains. “And I say </span>
  <em>
    <span>kid </span>
  </em>
  <span>but I might have been like, into my twenties by the time I stopped.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“S’all good,” Olivia says lazily. “We all have our little habits.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s the first time I’ve heard that,” Sumia responds with a distant fondness like she’s met Naga but only wants to say a quick hello. “But yeah, basically what it is is that you get a daisy or a flower with petals- I usually go with daisies- and you think of a yes or no question. And then you pick off petal by petal, going </span>
  <em>
    <span>yes, no, yes, no, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and when there are no petals left your answer is whatever the last petal was, whether it was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>yes</span>
  </em>
  <span> petal or a </span>
  <em>
    <span>no</span>
  </em>
  <span> petal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia hmms, musing that daisies must not be rare in Ylisse to be able to use them so casually. “Is that like the whole, you know, </span>
  <em>
    <span>she loves me, she loves me not </span>
  </em>
  <span>type of deal? I’ve heard of that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mmhmm!” Olivia can feel Sumia’s nod. “But I never used them like that, I guess. I think at the time it was just… I felt like kind of a dweeb romantically, so I didn’t want to give myself false hope or just confirm my disappointment. Besides, the way I take them, they wouldn’t have worked.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did you do them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…” Sumia takes a few seconds to sort out her thoughts, and Olivia takes the time to nuzzle into the crook of her shoulder, as if to say </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m here for you, no matter how embarrassing you think you are. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, Sumia says “Probably way too seriously? Because I don’t think most people do, you know? But for me, like, I’d use them before some, like, let’s say I had an important test. And I’d be like-” She mimes picking off a daisy’s petals. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll pass, I’ll fail, I’ll pass, I’ll fail. </span>
  </em>
  <span>And if it landed on pass, I’d stop worrying as much and let the vibes carry me. And if it landed on fail, then I’d study extra hard and make sure I took great notes. And the weird thing is, I think it acted as some sort of mental placebo because, like, on tests I did well. I think on a lot of things it helped me sort of center my mind on some state of being and I just… dedicated to it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s valid,” Olivia insists. “It’s definitely not silly or a placebo. It’s something you can make concrete and tie yourself to. An anchor.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia beams, radiant in the sunset. “Thanks. It’s always been tricky to think of it that way. It just… it’s been described as silly, but just another part of me that sh- no one really minds.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia tries not to frown. She knows </span>
  <em>
    <span>who </span>
  </em>
  <span>describes it that way and she just doesn’t agree. “You make it work for you. And anything you can do to help yourself, no matter how silly it seems…” She shrugs like it’s a small deal. “It’s better than you not helping yourself at all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Liv…” Sumia kisses the top of her head and Olivia smiles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, babe.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Long enough passes for the sun to set beneath the horizon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The last time I ever did one of these, I remember, was a few weeks before the wedding. The day after I offered to host it here. Cordie didn’t want to trouble me, but Robin was trying and failing to book a bunch of places. I guess… seeing how queer everything was, they sort of backed out.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia frowns. “Robin didn’t tell me about that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably so they didn’t worry you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a scoff: “Oh, that’s definitely why.” Still, Olivia smiles sadly. “Sorry, go ahead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia thinks visibly, staring into space. “Oh, uhm, I just… was nervous about a lot. And obviously… it wouldn’t be easy on any level. But it was never a question of I will or I won’t. What I asked the flower- well, asked and then sort of brute-forced the answer of- was </span>
  <em>
    <span>will it all be worth it or not?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia nods somberly. “And?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia shakes her head. “I don’t know,” she admits. “I stopped close to the end, but before I could count the petals enough to figure it out anyways. I just… cried, I guess. From all the stress and fear. And for plucking the petals off of the poor flower when I was too scared to get an answer. And I haven’t picked one since. I almost kind of forgot that I even picked at it until I went to gather flowers for the wedding and saw it just sort of… lying there. And I don’t remember what the answer would have been. I just… tried not to freak out and did what I needed to do. And that’s what I did when the wedding came. I didn’t think about whether or not it would be worth it for me. This was Cordie’s day and Robin’s day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia closes her eyes. It’s amazing that Sumia got through it all with a straight face because she is about to cry for Sumia. Sumia, her darling one… as much as they’ve talked honestly about Cordelia, she’s never really gotten the extent of her pain about the whole situation like she has here. Sumia, the type to leave her own anger in pieces, a tattered mess to the side of the flowers she would happily give to others until there were none left for her, until Cordelia gave hers back, until Olivia gave hers to Sumia for safekeeping… the arrangement that Sumia continues to restock to this day ever the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was it?” she asks quietly, so quiet that her voice cannot be heard. “Was it all worth it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Because it was for me, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she admits to herself for the first time since it happened. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia giggles, but it’s shaky. “I don’t deserve how worth it that it all has been to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes you do, baby,” Olivia breathes, her heart full of love. “Yes, you do.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Liv…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia doesn’t say anything else. She doesn’t have to. That’s fine with Olivia, who leans up to kiss Sumia on the cheek with so much dedication that she leaves a mark, leaves smoke in her wake. Sumia tightens each finger around Olivia’s waist, sneaking under the trenchcoat, and Olivia’s fine with that. She really is. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I just…” Instead of waiting, Olivia uses the lingering light of the day’s end to find a daisy, gently plucking it. Sumia looks surprised but allows it. “I just wanna try it,” she says. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go for it,” Sumia says with a slight stutter that Olivia only catches when she replays it. “What’s it for?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll… keep it to myself, if you don’t mind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A girl has to keep her secrets,” Sumia responds with helpful understanding. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia beams. This girl only has one, but she’ll keep it until the time is right. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She plucks each petal, the decision being not one of will she or won’t she, but of what she has to do. Will she have to keep fighting herself for this? Or will it finally start pouring forth so naturally that she cannot stop it, that it will drown her and she will not miss breathing?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She already knows the answer by the time the flower confirms it for her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever it was about,” Sumia notes “you seem to like the answer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia sniffles tearfully. “Yeah,” she breathes. It feels like she’s finally breathing. “Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia nods. “A good sniffly.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia smiles, eyes closed. Even if it’s been demoted to the second cutest thing about her, Olivia still lives for it. She can’t believe it’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>hers.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s enough for her to say, after a little thought “With harvest season coming up, Su, can you teach me how to plant the seeds? If you can and I’m here and all. I don’t wanna make anything harder on you than it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia thinks visibly, boring holes into the nothingness in front of her. Then: “Oh, definitely, if you want to. It’s not much, but maybe you can take it with you where you go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Olivia giggles sneakily. That will be easy to do since Olivia wants to stay right there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Also,” she adds before placing a very convincing kiss on Sumia’s lips. Sumia breathes her in with a delicious amount of greed, and the kiss lasts a little longer than Olivia intended but not as long as she wants. When they break apart, she continues. “Probably tomorrow or something, I want to talk about the power saw and all that. I might have a few thoughts on that whole thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sumia giggles and Olivia counts that as an argument already won. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just knows that whatever happens, she’s keeping the jacket. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Edit: I got a commission from my friend Hecco aka ArtOfPolli this month and as always he goes above and beyond so hard. Stan him and send him love and money, okay? </p><p>https://twitter.com/maevestrom/status/1333897450382233600?s=19</p></blockquote></div></div>
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